SHC restrains Sindh govt from charging infrastructure levy on LNG Pakistan

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday restrained the provincial government from collecting infrastructure levy from state-owned LNG Pakistan Limited ordering the company to furnish a bank guarantee equivalent to the differential amount (of the payable levy) to the satisfaction of the Nazir of the court.

The LNG Pakistan Limited had challenged the levy under Sindh Development and Maintenance of Infrastructure Cess Act 2017 against which Supreme Court of Pakistan has recently granted interim relief to Engro Fertilizer which had challenged an SHC judgment of June 4, 2021, validating the act and declaring it within the competence of the provincial legislature.

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The counsel for the petitioner Barrister Taha Alizai referring to the order of the Supreme Court submitted that while granting interim relief the apex court had observed that the act, prima facie, suffered from constitutional and legal defects including but not limited to the competence of the provincial legislature to legislate on the subject.

A two-member SHC bench headed by Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi issued notice to advocate general Sindh and stopped the Sindh government from taking any adverse or coercive action against the petitioner and directing it to clear the consignments of the petitioner without demanding infrastructure levy.